#RussianSaying about Death… & Life.

Andrei Ryabushkin – Khorovod (aka A Young Man Breaking into the Girls’ Dance, and the Old Women are in Panic), 1902.

“Mir” means either “world” or “peace” in Russian. Also it is an obsolete word which is defined as “[Russian] village community”. Thus, it is better to translate “mir” here as “around people”. “Red” also means “beautiful” in Russian (e.g.: krasna devitsa – literally – “red maiden”, i.e. “beautiful maiden”). Thus, this proverb can be translated as follows: death is beautiful when you are around people. An expalnation being that you can overcome various difficulties when you are not alone, even death is not so frightening when the loved ones are near you.

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6 thoughts on “#RussianSaying about Death… & Life.”

Hi, this is a good translation, and that’s how it’s typically translated. But just to clarify a little: “krasna” in this case is better translated not as “krasiva” = “beautiful,” but as “mila” – epmhasis on “a,” in other words, as “nice” = “not scary” + “aggreable” + “acceptable” + “tolerable.” In reality, it’s a very difficult task – translating Russian culture into English. 🙂
Cheers.

I love your elucidation of this saying. It shows how compacted such proverbs may be: a few words but packed with meaning that may only be decodable by those ‘in the know’. I would not have guessed, for instance, the old meaning of mir; the saying would thus have remained opaque to me without your explanation.